Tomorrow, here in Texas, we have run-off elections. Shouldn't be too busy; just another long day, up at 4am, home at 9pm, if I'm lucky.
But I'm grimacing at the idea of working this one. Because I'm just so damn tired of working with Republican judges.
Here in Texas, the "lead judge"--i.e. the one who gives the orders--is the judge of the party that got the highest vote count in the last gubernatorial election in one's precinct. No surprise there; since Perry's had a lock on the governorship for what seems like forever, the lead judges have been the Republican judges. In the last five years, I've gone through five of them.
Most of them haven't even been from my precinct, a very small precinct west of Fort Worth. Two of them have had no experience at all as poll workers, much less judges, before they got the "lead judge" gig. Two were nice. The other three? No.
There is just something in the right-wing makeup, I think, that promotes being an arrogant jerk. Maybe it's the idea that God is on their side, Democrats are the spawn of the devil, "liberals" are by definition lazy moochers, Republicans are members of the elite...I'm just clueless.
"Joan"--not her real name--was the first GOP judge I worked with and she was a pleasant, down-to-earth woman who saw me as another member of the team. Her husband ended up getting elected mayor of our very small town, and was thrown out for using city property for his own benefit, among other things, a year later; but she and her clerks were fine. I enjoyed working with her.
That lasted one year, which luckily included 2008. The primary was insane; I think half the people voting in the Democratic primary were Republicans trying to make sure Obama didn't get the nod, but I could be wrong. We got through it and my guy won.
Thank God.
Joan quit after that, due to family problems. I was sorry to see her go, especially when "Rachael" showed up.
Rachael wasn't actually a Republican, but a rabid TPer in GOP clothing. Rachael had never so much as worked an election. The lead judge calls the shots; when she couldn't figure out how to get the "judge's box" switched on properly and I offered a suggestion, I was basically told to shut up. She'd do it her way, thank you very much. This was a preview of things to come. You really can't brawl with your lead judge in public and since she never did anything actually against the law, I let it go. But I did resent being treated like a not-too-bright servant. (I kept her away from my clerk.)
Both she and I, precinct chairs as well as judges, also had to hold our precinct conventions as soon as we closed the polls down. I had two people at mine, a delightful elderly couple and we went through the procedure, step by step, of electing a representative to the county convention, me, since they were both in poor health. Twenty minutes later, I was saying goodnight to them.
I finished with the paperwork and checked the room where Rachael was sitting in conference with six people. They were talking about Deborah Medina, the TP candidate on the ballot that year. I ducked back into my room and sat down to wait.
I waited four hours.
At 11pm, I walked into the room and reminded Deborah that we had to drive to the county seat, a half hour away, to turn in our equipment and paperwork. A shrug and a roll of her eyes--damn Democrat, interfering with her right to bitch with her TP pals--but we finally closed up and started off. We were the last precinct to check in...by two hours.
She worked one more election, luckily sans convention, and then she disappeared, telling me that if her candidate didn't win, she'd be damned if she'd waste her time. Such a civic-minded person.
The next election was a minor affair and Lee showed up with her two teenage grandchildren. Delightful, all of them. I made a fervent wish that they'd stick around.
Nope. Next was Al. Al was another person who felt that a leader is someone who treats his followers like peasants. He ignored my suggestions on how to set up the tables, where to post the notices, and he insisted--this was this year's primaries--that we divide into two tables and label one "Republican" and one "Democrat." Since we both could process either D or R voters, this was absurd and actually went against what we'd been told to do by the elections office, but he insisted. Since voters were already coming in, I didn't push the issue.
I was wrong. Midway through the day, a small, elderly woman came in through the door and walked over to my table. "Would you like a Democrat or Republican ballot?" I asked. "Democrat." (The actual ballots are assigned by the computer when it gives it voter a code to enter into the voting machine, but we have to mark people either R or D on our paperwork.)
She never got her ballot. A big burly man walked in, looked over at her, saw the "Democrat" sign and hollered, "Hey! You come over here. This is the Republican side."
She turned and went over to the R table. I supposed I could have made a fuss, but I had a feeling that she'd pay for it later, so I said nothing. But I did rip the Democrat sign off our table. Al asked why. "Because people should be able to ask for whatever ballot they want, without being labeled!"
A shrug.
Tomorrow, it's the primary runoffs. Cruz/Dewhurst, Sadler/and....well, I can't even find out who his opponent is, since the news media simply states that no Dem has won a statewide office since '94, so who cares? I'll see it on the ballot in the morning.
Just came back from the polling place, where I was supposed to meet "Hazel" at 4pm. I walked in at 3:55 to find that Hazel, with her husband, had already set everything up, the way she thought was best, with not the slightest intention of asking the opinion of someone who's worked elections in this building for the last five years. Fine. However, she also informed me that her husband is a Democrat, so he'll accompany her when she takes the judges box to the elections office tomorrow night. It won't be necessary for me to make the trip.
Very gracious about it. Very much the Junior League lady telling the housemaid she can go to bed.
"I'll go with you."
"I told you, that won't be necessary."
"I don't care. I'm the Democratic judge. I'm supposed to go with you. I will go with you. "
Her husband looked a bit shocked. I had the feeling that he's not at all used to someone standing up to his wife. Even though what she was proposing was against all the rules. (Both judges go so that no one can tamper with the box along the way. Period.)
It's going to be a long day tomorrow.